About Kay Lutter

Kay plays bass for In Extremo, a metal band that combines heavy riffs with medieval influences.

Kay Lutter was about 9 years old when he picked up his first bass guitar. After 8 years on a music school in his hometown Potsdam, he moved to Berlin to study music on the Hanns Eisler Highschool. Kay Lutter played in a wide range of different bands, before he found his place in In Extremo in 1997.

As a band In Extremo rose to fame as being a solid metal band that does not shy away from adding unorthodox sounds to their songs and they draw heavily on instruments such as bagpipes, harp, hurdy-gurdy and shawm, creating a pagan medieval vibe. Their repertoire holds a variety of well-known traditional ballads. However, during the past few years the members of In Extremo have been expanding their musical palette with their own material written in German.

We had a chat with Kay Lutter about his experience with the Blacksmith from TC. Needless to say being on tour takes its toll on even the toughest gear. Kay recalls complications associated with the somewhat fragile nature of tubes and the handling of tube amps on tour: “I'll be honest to you. I was looking for a loud amp that is easy to handle. I hated to have broken tubes after the second concert during a festival tour and to end the tour with a rental amp. You know what I mean?”. The development in the field of transistor based amps during the past years has made Kay Lutter reconsider his attitudes towards amplifiers: “I decided to change from tube to transistor - and I've never regretted this step”.

While on tour Kay Lutter uses 3 different bass guitars, all with different output levels. He specifically emphasizes the easy handling of the Blacksmith being one of its main qualities: “I really like the sound of the Blacksmith, but actually it's the handling that makes me happy. If you play on a big festival and you only have 25 minutes for a soundcheck with a band with 7 members and maybe 15 different instruments you'll be happy to have a reliable amp on stage. That's the most important thing for me...”.